Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is drawing heat for chasing the sun in Europe as his constituents back home dealt with a devastating crisis.

Cruz was captured queuing up to visit the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, on Saturday afternoon local time, after Texas authorities had already announced 24 deaths from the catastrophic flash floods in the Texas Hill Country and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had signed a disaster declaration to aid the response.

Cruz, though, did not return home until Sunday evening. Still, his office claims he arrived in Texas “as fast as humanly possible.”

An eyewitness told The Daily Beast, which was first to report on Cruz’s trip to Athens, they confronted the senator over the timing of his visit to the archaeological site.

“As he walked past us, I simply said, ‘20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?’” the eyewitness said.

“He sort of grunted and walked on,” the person added. “His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide.”

Macarena Martinez, Cruz’s communication director, ripped The Daily Beast’s report, calling it a “bullshit piece.”

“The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible,” Martinez wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter.”

The outlet updated its article with Martinez’s reply, adding that there were several flights the senator could have boarded from Athens to reach San Antonio sooner. It was unclear if those flights had seats available, The Daily Beast noted.

While Cruz’s office declined to offer details on when the senator booked his flight back home, it told the Texas Tribune he departed Greece “early Sunday” Central time and was in San Antonio by that evening.

Cruz appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning from Kerrville, Texas.

His office said he was in constant communication with local officials, including the governor, since learning about the tragedy unfolding.

The floods, which began early Friday, had claimed over 100 lives as of Monday, while officials continue to search for those missing in the region.

This is not the first time Cruz has drawn scrutiny for enjoying sunny trips abroad while his state contends with crises. In 2021, the senator was spotted boarding a plane for Cancun while his constituents dealt with power outages caused by historic winter weather. Cruz has since called his decision to embark on the trip “obviously a mistake.”

Adding to the controversy surrounding his Athens trip, prior to his departure for Europe, Cruz voted in favor of Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, ensuring the legislation canceled funding meant to “accelerate advances and improvements in research, observation systems, modeling, forecasting, assessments, and dissemination of information to the public” as it pertains to weather forecasts, according to The Guardian.

The bill also eliminated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s grants for “the study of climate-related impacts on oceans, weather systems and coastal ecosystems,” the outlet noted.

Cruz did not return The Guardian’s request for comment about the cuts.

Democrats have demanded an investigation into how the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies could have affected the forecast and response to the floods.